We are hosting an important offerings of forums – the first ones ever held for Burning Man Theme Camps!

The first forum is scheduled for Wednesday, February 15th, 6-9 PM Pacific Time. That's the date that the 2012 Placement questionnaire goeslive. At least one subsequent forum – covering the same topics – will be scheduled on a Saturday in March, earlier in the day to accommodate east coast and international time zones.

Our event is growing, and with that growth comes challenges for both the Burning Man organization and you. Our departmental leadershipgroup and the Placement team have considered what topics would benefit the most from a dialog with you, with the goal of better settingexpectations, and making things easier on the playa.

Topics to be presented to assist your success as a theme camp producer will include:

o Tips for successful filing of the Placement questionnaire

o How to get through Gate with ease: early arrivals, carpools, deliveries, & "outside services"

o How to successfully de-MOOP and leave no trace: @ BRC and in surrounding communities

We hope you can join us in person at BMHQ in San Francisco (limited seating), or via webcast and phone.RSVP Call-in and web-in information to follow.

- Terry Schoop, Manager, Black Rock City Community Service Depts*

I will not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone . . . there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

When we have them you will. Still 13 days till Forum #1, 51 days till a repeat of the same info (Forum #2) for our east coast and abroad camps, mid-day on Sat March 24th

I will not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone . . . there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

As previously announced, next Wednesday night, Feb. 15th 6pm-9pm Pacific, we will be holding the first-ever Theme Camp Placement Resource Forum at the Burning Man offices in San Francisco. When we first conceived of this forum, little did we know there would be an added urgency to meeting with a you all. The Placement team and key staff members will be presenting information to help you file your request for 2012 placement.

Topics to be presented to assist your success as a theme camp producer will include:

o Ticket shortage (NEW TOPIC)

o Tips for successful filing of the Placement questionnaire

o How to get through Gate with ease: early arrivals, carpools, deliveries, & "outside services"

o How to successfully de-MOOP and leave no trace: @ BRC and in surrounding communities

The scheduling of this meeting is intended for west coast campers, and we will repeat the program mid-day (11am-2pm Pacific) Sat March 24th for central, east coast, and abroad camps.

RSVP:Limited seating: we will have seating for approx. 80 people at the forum. To have the broadest representation, we suggest that you limit your in-person attendance to a single representative from each camp. But we will not be doing a lott . . . , er, we will not be doing a "random selection" for these RSVPs. Please RSVP to placement@burningman.com with name and camp name before end of day (5pm), Tuesday, Feb 14. And since we mentioned it, early Happy Valentines Day!

I will not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone . . . there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

retropsycho wrote:RSVP:Limited seating: we will have seating for approx. 80 people at the forum. To have the broadest representation, we suggest that you limit your in-person attendance to a single representative from each camp. But we will not be doing a lott . . . , er, we will not be doing a "random selection" for these RSVPs.

hehehhehehe..

it is good to see we can laugh about this now!

thanks retro for the stuff you do to make this all happen.. with placement and elsewhere.

If anybody's interested, a lot of people on Fuze are getting a meeting-full message and can't hear it. I got in, then it recommended installing a plug-in, so I punched out, installed it, and then when I joined back I got the "full" message. Great. Technology solves everything.

Ah, well. :/

It would help if people would STFU in the chat window. Opulent Temple and some others are trying to relay information. Pretty interesting, but you can't read it because of all the smacktards spamming it up with their personal commentary.

"The Red Baron is smart.. He never spends the whole night dancing and drinking root beer.. "-The WWI Flying Ace

I thought it interesting that, until I contacted placement about possible ticket availability for my camp (per the discussion about camps receiving availability to the "open sale' tickets), they responded that:

1) The ticket allocation has already been decided.2) You have to register by March 8 to know if [name of camp] is getting tickets.

This is confusing since one seems to negate the other. I did submit the questionnaire even before the forum took place so I made an additional plea for tickets after the meeting.

This was the first time I had heard anything about the March 8 deadline. Is this common knowledge?

Trishntek wrote:I thought it interesting that, until I contacted placement about possible ticket availability for my camp (per the discussion about camps receiving availability to the "open sale' tickets), they responded that:

1) The ticket allocation has already been decided.2) You have to register by March 8 to know if [name of camp] is getting tickets.

Right. To expand:

1) Vague and cryptic, but, we understand it's a product of damage control and survival mode. Fair enough. But:

2) Okay. So, those of us who registered immediately after the questionnaire became available have received confirmation of registration and our people are ready to start working but, we have to wait several weeks before we can tell our camps whether we have any chance of going.

We know they've already been in contact with, for example, the airport crew. So, I'm not trying to bash the Org here, just trying to invite them to our point of view. I'm still optimistic that the Org is listening and will do the best thing:Opening the STEP program to 2 tickets per entry would give hope and joy for everybody, and help save the collaborative spirit. The BRC community is working on all kinds of ways to help break the scalping economy, and if a burner identifies a scalper for the org, the org could offer the ticket to them at face value as a reward. The Black Rock Bounty Hunt begins as soon as the Org says "Go."

I'm confident that they're going to make this work.

"The Red Baron is smart.. He never spends the whole night dancing and drinking root beer.. "-The WWI Flying Ace

I think that the situation is pretty straightforward . . . at least as much as is possible given all the factors.

They've made some decisions about which groups get to buy the remaining tickets, ie infrastructure, volunteers and theme camps. Then within each of those groups detailed allocations need to happen and that will take time. In the case of the airport, a discussion will need to happen about just how many people are needed to build and safely run it. I'd bet that only the people running the airport know that.

The same with theme camps, except that they have stated there has already been a cull made of which camps will be offered tickets if those camps are planning to attend this year. And thus the need for an application process and discussion with each camp to find out how many tickets are needed. I'd imagine there will be quite a bit of back and forth to sort all this out before any distributions are made. Could be cases where a number of known and approved camps don't want to attend. Could be the number of tickets a camp says is their bottom line is more than they can have and they fold, freeing up tickets for other camps. Could be a camp is allowed to purchase enough tickets, but they can't afford them at the highest price. And yeah, there's the point of why apply if you're already not on the list, so why not publish the list. Other than the obvious uproar that would cause I'd guess that they want to leave open the option of camps they didn't know about or extra tickets for camps that didn't make the first cut.

I agree, the org will do as best as is humanly possible to distribute the remaining tickets in a fair way.

First, an email went out from the placement team to the entire list of theme camp organizers on Wednesday night with the date and details.

Second, on Thursday I posted notes from Wednesday evening's Theme Camp Forum, which has that plus other great info (it was a great session, in my opinion).

Third, another email went out from the placement team to the entire list of theme camp organizers on Friday afternoon with a link to the audio recording and slides from Wednesday night's forum (which I've also posted to the notes thread).

Trilo: I know you repeat yourself many time and do so very much to keep us informed. I'm sorry for bringing up what was apparently old news and thank you Thank You THANK YOU for your diligence and patience with us numbskulls.

And not knowing if you have already been awarded tix or not (which is based on prior interactivity, etc) doesn't let a camp 'game' their application.

Although, if my email time is correct, TnT sent in our application BEFORE the meeting occurred, so he wouldn't have had the later-released info that one might have wanted to stress on the application. But then again, the picks are already there so.....

We wait and see.......but dammit, our bar & entertainment was open from 2pm to 2am every day but for a break for dinner. Doesn't that get us some boo points???

Not a problem at all, TnT… and remember, so long as you guys get it in by the 8th you're covered. Take the time you need to get the info together. Tell 'em what you know you're going to do as well as the stuff you're planning to try and do (they understand that this is early). If you already submitted the form and need to change something, or if something changes at any point after you hit that submit button, you can update your info by sending an email to placement@burningman.com. Just make sure you've got your camp name in the subject line of that email (makes it much easier for the placement team to forward and track your info).